1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to software package development and more particularly to reviewing and approving software products at various stages of development.
2. Background of the Invention
Most large development projects such as developing a consumer software package are collaborative efforts. Typically, these are modular projects where individuals or small groups are each assigned a specific development task. Such a task may be to write a specific piece of code for large software package, e.g., a subroutine, a macro, etc. Normally, after each participant develops his or her particular code to a point where it may be complete or close to completion, the code is reviewed for approval.
Prior to the review, the author or a moderator creates a static packet of the code for review and distributes the packet to all reviewers. After a suitable period of time, the author or moderator holds the packet review meeting wherein one person, e.g., the author or developer, reads the code aloud and reviewers are allowed to comment and identify errors or problems with the code. Comments are recorded and the author may take whatever action he or she feels is necessary such as, for example, correcting errors or rewriting portions of code. These code inspection or review meetings are integral parts of software development processes.
Generally, these code inspections are done manually, providing each reviewer with a paper copy of the code and, review/inspection meetings generally take a great deal of time. A typical code inspection/review meeting may cover 100 to 125 lines of code per hour. For a large software module, e.g., a couple of thousand lines long, this review can be a long tedious process.